Autistic people currently face extremely poor health outcomes, but with the right support and adjustments they can live healthy and long lives. We've worked with NHS England to create this plan to offer effective health checks to every autistic person.

What's in the plan

In the Autistica Health Checks Plan we explain why health checks are needed and set out the research that exists and the evidence we've been building through our work with Newcastle University to develop and test a yearly health check.

Why we created this plan

In 2016 we brought out a report highlighting high rates of poor health and early death in autistic people. This prompted the NHS to include an autism health check in their Long Term Plan. In 2020, NHS England partnered with Autistica and the Peter Sowerby Foundation to fund a health check pilot trial.

Who we are consulting with

We need both autistic people and primary care professionals to feel confident about these health checks. So earlier this year we brought together autistic people, their supporters, commissioners and policymakers, GPs and researchers, for two online workshops. They gave us their views on the barriers to delivering or accessing health checks and discussed solutions to make them a success.

What's next

The plan explains how we will continue to work with NHS England to test the health check for autistic people, and how we will support more research and campaigns relating to healthcare for autistic people.